Arlene Rodríguez’s final reflection
When crafting this zine, I wanted to shift my team’s focus to impact. Oftentimes when discussing Latinxidentity, we overlook many countries, but also many different cultures within the identity itself as well. This is not only a sentiment that I myself faced growing up, but something I soon realized was shared within my group as well. Growing up in Teaneck, New Jersey, while a diverse town, I often noticed that Afro-Latinx identity had been consistently ignored within the education system. Because of this, I wanted to ensure that my culture had been represented in a captivating and informative way, thus the creation of our zine.
There are many issues within the Afro-Latinx identity that also go unnoticed, and this can be found addressed in our class reading of Randall’s “Wild Tongues can’t Be Tamed”. In this reading, the author compares himself to the story of Miles Morales, also recognized as the only colored version of Spider Man. The author identifies as Afro-Latino, and acknowledges that he only ended up at this thought when he had first arrived at college. Much like my team and I described in our zine, the author describes the lack of acknowledgement of Afro Latinx culture. This is not only a societal issue, but one that has presented itself as a personal one as well. The lack of acknowledgement adds tothemes of imposter syndrome and fissure with finding oneself, especially in a setting like college.
In our zine, we all described prominent topics that we found lacked acknowledgment, but were also prominent in our life. For me, I chose to discuss the topic of food. Food is something
not only prominent to my culture as a Dominican, but a huge part of Latinx culture overall. Food stands as a love language for me, one in which I am able to express myself not just through different flavors, but through different forms of creativity. For this zine specifically, I chose to make two Dominican staples: cheese pastelitos and morir sonando. Cheese pastelitos are a common snack presented in “colmados” also known as bodegas, or also commonly served as appetizers in family gatherings and parties. Morir sonando similarly is also sold in colmados, however, most drinked on hot summer days. These two items are something I hold near to my heart because it reminds me of summertime in DominicanRepublic.Recreating these food items also shed light on how different Ithaca and Cornell culture are in comparison to what I am used to at home. At Cornell, it is very difficult to find a sense of community, especially when there are not many students who share your background. For this reason, I attempt to engage in classes like this one and gain a broader perspective on Latinx culturearound me, in an attempt to cultivate this sense of community. Though the class is a great way to connect with Latinx identity, I do believe it could use some improvement in regards to speaking about more Caribbean countries and Afro Latinx culture as a whole. Despite this however, I am grateful for the open space created by courses like this in our PWI. This zine taught me many things about Afro Latinx culture, but most importantly, it taught me the importance of teaching and spreading forward cultureespecially in spaces where not many speak up.
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